Learning about militancy

IT would appear that there remain a few oases of common sense in the administration of President Bush. John Negroponte — deputy secretary of state, the second-ranking official at the State Department and overseer of US diplomatic policy towards Pakistan — has stated the obvious: unilateral American strikes inside Pakistan are not a good idea. But a closer reading of Mr Negroponte’s statement shows that what the Americans give with one statement, they take away with another missile. The crucial caveat reducing the force of Mr Negroponte’s statement? Unilateral strikes are not a viable solution “over a prolonged period of time”. Mr Negroponte did not explain what he meant by a prolonged period of time. Was the diplomat calling for US strikes inside Fata to end immediately? Or was he merely advising the next US president, who will take office in January, that continuing with President Bush’s policy of unilateral strikes will not be such a good idea? Pakistan cannot afford to wait for months to decipher what Mr Negroponte meant.

The clearest indication of what the US is hoping to achieve in Fata was given by the CIA director, Michael Hayden, earlier this week when he said that the US is trying to “tickle” militant groups in Fata, hoping to learn more about the whereabouts and patterns of movement of the militants. Director Hayden was essentially saying that the US is shaking the tree of militancy and then inspecting the fruit that falls to the ground to learn more about the militants still hiding in the tree. What the Americans are of course overlooking is that in the process they are also stirring up a hornet’s nest of Pakistani public opinion — which is becoming more stridently anti-American with each passing day. US strikes inside Pakistan are a bad idea. Period. Only Pakistan has the wherewithal and the potential public support to strike inside Fata.

The Pakistani government no doubt has an immense task to hold back an American administration running out of time and ideas. However, why is our government not trying to win over the public by taking the lid off on the goings-on in Waziristan? Why has the government not launched a concerted campaign to educate Pakistanis about the risks they face from militancy? Most Pakistanis do not know the difference between Matta and Miranshah or Angoor Adda and Khar. Lack of information makes it impossible for the public to understand the virtue in striking back against militants. Earlier this year, former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar marshalled facts, figures and graphs excellently to explain our economic predicament to the nation. Cannot the mass of PR and defence experts in the civilian administration sit down and draw up a similar campaign to educate the public on the militancy threat?

Curtain call for Napa

SHOULD Pakistan prepare to become a cultural wasteland again? Collective memory has a short lifespan or this week our elected government would not have directed the National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa) to vacate the majestic Hindu Gymkhana premises within three months. The move is not merely shocking but hauntingly reminiscent of the dark years of Gen Ziaul Haq, when the arts were given an indisputable burial. According to reports, the Sindh culture secretary in his notice to Napa accused the institution of violating the agreement between the government and the art academy. The construction of a theatre within its grounds is cited as a violation as the building is a protected heritage property under the Sindh Culture Heritage (Preservation) Act 1994.

Meanwhile, thespians and art fiends are up in arms and feel that the academy, an educational endeavour and a sanctuary for the world-weary, is being singled out as they allege that there are other occupied portions of the same building. Murmurs of such a brutal abortion of artistic pursuits surfaced soon after the Musharraf regime breathed its last. The Sindh culture and tourism minister announced that the property should be returned to the Hindu community. The government department said nothing of the many devoted senior artists who have put their livelihoods aside to educate aspiring talent in the name of keeping art and recreation alive. On the other end, insiders fear that since the gymkhana does not have one claimant, it will become a breeding ground for lawsuits and eventually become hostage to the builder mafia.

It is becoming ominously clear that Napa’s impending closure is not more than a manifestation of the politics of revenge, even though Benazir Bhutto’s immortal words ‘democracy is the best revenge’, could not have implied the callous undoing of the good that her detractors were capable of. This observation finds resonance in history where previous governments sought to eliminate all traces of development by their predecessors, not caring about how the citizenry could benefit from it. Napa and its repertory theatre are at the threshold of giving a new lease of life to the performing arts. Surely, a notice of warning in the case of a breach of agreement would not be a first. Besides, the idea of ‘giving it back’ to the Hindu community should have occurred to earlier dispensations. Today, the gesture appears nothing more than a political stunt.

A cruel joke

THERE could not be a more cruel joke than Israel being ready to express sorrow over the plight of the Palestinian refugees. It is not even going to be an apology, for an expression of sorrow does not imply an admission of guilt. One could, for instance, feel sorry for a community devastated by an earthquake or tsunami. Here the issue is the Zionist movement and Israel’s direct responsibility for the Palestinian people’s massacre and expulsion from their homeland. In his speech to the Knesset’s foreign affairs committee, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert repeated Israel’s standard policy — the Palestinian refugees do not have the right to return. With this mindset, feeling sorry for their plight becomes meaningless. We know, for instance, that the Pope has apologised to the Muslim world for the excesses committed by the Crusaders, and we know that Germany has apologised to world Jewry for the Holocaust. But these are dead issues that belong to history; the Palestinian refugees’ is not a dead issue, for there are 4.5 million Arab refugees waiting to return to Palestine once the two-state idea incorporated in many peace plans becomes a reality.

The UN General Assembly’s Resolution 194 of 1948 says “the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and ... compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the governments or authorities responsible…” Israel has received billions of dollars from Germany as compensation for the Holocaust, but it has not only not paid any compensation to the Palestinian refugees, it has confiscated all moveable and immovable property left behind by the Palestinian people. In fact, such is the heartlessness of Israel’s refugee policy that the assets left behind by the refugees are used by Tel Aviv to finance the migration of Jews to Israel. The issue is not an apology but the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state.

Hard times for Roma

THEIR story is as old as time — and so is the racism and discrimination they face. For centuries, Europe’s 10 million or so Roma — sometimes better known as Gypsies — have suffered persecution, prejudice and poverty, making their community the most under-privileged minority in Europe. Finally, however, Europe’s Roma are demanding their rights as equal citizens.

At a first-ever ‘European Roma Summit’ held in Brussels on Sept 16, over 500 representatives of the community insisted it was time for action to end decades of discrimination. Key EU leaders also agreed on the need for change. The Roma still represented “the largest ethnic group facing extreme poverty, social exclusion and discrimination on our territory,” European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told the summit, adding: “Most of their population ... lives in conditions which are simply not acceptable in 21st century Europe.”

Recognition of their plight is a significant first step in ending years of injustice, said Roma leaders. But, as illustrated by the latest bout of Roma-bashing in Italy, changing attitudes towards Europe’s Roma is going to be a difficult, long-haul struggle.

For one, the Roma are a historically persecuted group: the Nazis sent them to concentration camps. More recently, they’ve been attacked by far-right groups in many parts of the EU — both in former communist countries and in western Europe.

Most of them live in Hungary, Bulgaria Romania and Slovakia, where they make up more than 10 per cent of the population, but smaller numbers can be found in almost all EU nations. Italy and Spain have received the most Roma from the bloc’s eastern member states. “In many cities in eastern as well as western Europe, there is violence and racist agitation against our people,” said Romani Rose, head of the German Central Council of Roma and Sinti.

Roma representatives at the Brussels meeting were scathing in their criticism of EU policy. Their anger was especially directed at the European Commission’s failure to condemn Italy over new security measures that human rights groups have denounced as discriminatory against Gypsies. An estimated 150,000 Roma live in Italy, mainly in squalid, makeshift camps on the outskirts of major cities.

After a spate of violence involving Roma in the country, Italy’s government is conducting a census of tens of thousands of Gypsies. It says the moves — which include the finger-printing of children — will help authorities clamp down on crime and illegal immigrants and push Roma children to attend school.

In comments that have been widely condemned by the Roma and by human rights groups, the European Commission said initially that the policy is not racist. “It is very shameful such things can happen within the European Union,” said Isabela Mihalache, senior project manager with the Open Society Institute. “It’s also shameful that the European Commission could not send a clearer and stronger message to the Italian government.”

EU officials have since then taken a tougher line against Italy. Mr Barroso told Roma protesters holding up banners that denounced “ethnic profiling” that he was also against such action.

But the problem is widespread and unlikely to be solved by slogans. Italy is not the only country where Roma face persecution. In Greece, the United Nations has warned that over 100,000 Gypsies living in settlements on the outskirts of Athens are facing a “desperate situation”, typically without electricity and access to potable running water.

In Hungary, there is tension between Roma and non-Roma, after a teacher was beaten to death by a Roma mob in one village, and attacks on a lorry driver and his family in another — both after road traffic accidents involving Roma children. The creation of a ‘Hungarian Guard’, by far-right groups who arrive in villages after such incidents, is fuelling fears of an explosion.

In fact, recent EU enlargements have led to a significant increase in the number of Roma or Roma-related people in many EU states and a simultaneous increase in social tensions. Highlighting the prejudice they face across Europe, a recent opinion polls showed that 77 per cent of Europeans think that being Roma is a disadvantage in society, on a par with being disabled.

In an important step acknowledging the scale of the problem, EU leaders last December said the bloc should use all means to improve the across-the-board inclusion of Roma in Europe.

“Mainstream societies need to offer the Roma a real, practical chance to improve their perspectives. Unless hope enters Roma neighbourhoods, shantytowns and makeshift settlements, these places will inevitably become zones of insecurity for their inhabitants and for the mainstream societies which surround them,” said Barroso.It’s not just a one-way street, however. Analysts say that Roma communities also tend to be inward-looking, with families reluctant to send their children to school and attitudes which work against the emancipation of women. Since they are constantly on the move, the granting of citizenship to Roma is also difficult.

Education is widely seen as providing a solution to Roma marginalisation. However, the gap between Roma educational attainment and the national average remains enormous and has even widened. Also, educational segregation of Roma children in separate schools has intensified in many countries. Discrimination in the jobs market is also chronic.

Given the enormous effort needed to end such discrimination Roma leaders are calling on the EU to draw up a framework strategy on Roma inclusion, including the creation of a Roma unit within the European Commission. There is disagreement on whether this is the right approach, however.

The Czech Minister for Human Rights and National Minorities Džamila Stehlíková has welcomed the proposal, saying “the Czech presidency will support the establishment of an EU Roma unit” at the Commission. But France’s Christine Boutin, the minister for housing and urban affairs, instead insisted that “it is not necessary to create new committees or policy instruments”, calling for efficient and effective use of existing tools. The Commission has also said it will not develop “a centralised approach from Brussels”.

One reason that the EU is unwilling to set up a special department to discuss the issue is that Roma are not the only target of discrimination in Europe. A recent international survey warned that anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim attitudes have been rising nearly in tandem in several European countries, apparently reflecting concerns over immigration, globalisation and economic ills.Anti-Jewish feelings and anti-Muslim sentiments were particularly strong in Spain, Poland and Russia — with negativity up significantly since 2006, according to the Pew Research Centre’s polling. Anti-Muslim views were also strong in Germany and France. Not surprisingly, such negative views of Jews and Muslims are strongest among older people, the less educated and those of the political right — the very people who are also prejudiced against the Roma.

The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Brussels.

Energy efficiency

WHEN an army confronts a heavily defended enemy, it has two options: a full-frontal attack or a siege. In the battle against climate change and its cause, there is a similar choice.

The all-out attacks are mega-schemes to convert the Sahara into a giant solar energy farm, or supergrids connecting renewable energy plants across continents. These are dazzling, flashy proposals. Global geo-engineering plans are even more pulse-quickening, aimed as they are at changing the reflectivity of the entire planet.

Yet such spectacular attacks are high-risk, easily turning into crashing, expensive failures. Sieges are the wise general’s choice. And in the context of carbon dioxide emissions, the siege strategy equates to energy efficiency. That means switching stuff off, or building it to use less energy in the first place.

A report last year from the consulting group McKinsey found that even implementing only those energy efficiency measures that pay for themselves at sensible rates of return could reduce the energy needed in 2020 by about a quarter. That would be halfway towards the emissions cuts that give a decent chance of limiting global warming to under 2C. A more homely example: if everyone in the UK bought the most efficient fridges, freezers and washing machines, the carbon saving would equal taking around 1.4m cars off the road.

From a policy perspective, the remedy is clear: minimum energy efficiency standards.

— The Guardian, London

OTHER VOICES - Sri Lankan Press

Antony’s sanctimonious humbug

The Island

AT a time Prabhakaran has had his chips, Tiger sympathisers are employing various methods to take him off the hook. Some of them are propagating the same old propaganda lie that the war is ‘unwinnable’ and hoping and praying that the LTTE will make a miraculous comeback…. Others are playing a more active role. They are using the plight of Tamil civilians the LTTE is holding in the war zone against their will as a bludgeon against the government. They are hoping for a huge increase in the collateral damage so as to bring international pressure to bear on the government and thwart its military campaign.

It is against this backdrop that Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony’s recent statement … about the security of Tamils in the Wanni should be viewed. Safety of civilians is … of paramount importance. But, where has Antony been all these years?

The LTTE has killed thousands of Tamils and forcibly conscripted thousands of Tamil children. The LTTE-held terrain has remained a hellhole for the past two and a half decades. But, there was not a whimper of protest from Antony. Why? Has Antony forgotten that India must take the full responsibility for the suffering of not only Tamils but also all other communities in Sri Lanka due to terrorism….

He is reported to have said … that threats to international security came from the states avoiding international interdependence….

The greatest threat to global security, as Antony may be aware, comes not from sovereign states but elusive terrorist groups….

Those who are expressing concern about the security of civilians in the Wanni have stopped short of calling for action against the LTTE, which is using people as a shield in Kilinochchi and Mulaitivu.

Therefore, it may be argued that anyone who laments the plight of civilians without faulting the LTTE or pressuring it to release people in its clutches is, either wittingly or unwittingly, helping further the LTTE’s cause. — (Sept 19)